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Support staff urge living-wage steps; board later approves revised bus-driver schedule
Summary
Support staff and school nurses used the public forum to press the Maplewood-Richmond Heights board to raise wages, citing a starting base of $16.99/hour and a living-wage benchmark around $21.79/hour; the board later approved a revised bus-driver schedule but did not adopt broader step changes at the meeting.
Several support-staff members and school nurses appealed to the board during public comment on Feb. 19 to raise compensation and reconsider use of PTO during inclement days.
Jimmy (support-staff representative) said the district's starting base pay for custodians, bus drivers and couriers is "$16.99 an hour" and that, using the MIT living-wage calculator cited in his remarks, a single adult in the St. Louis metropolitan area needs about $21.79 per hour. He told trustees the district's step schedule does not reach that living wage until step 10 and asked the board to develop a salary schedule that "meets, exceeds the minimum for the living wage."
Nurse Catherine asked the board to know "more than just the names and titles" of staff and to value the daily work of nurses, custodial and food-service employees who also work summers and snow days. She said higher pay would help retain institutional knowledge and allow staff to retire from the district with dignity.
Board members did not adopt a district-wide step change at the meeting; however, they later approved a revised bus-driver salary schedule during the action-items portion. The board packet and the vote record should list details of the schedule revisions and effective dates.
Speakers and trustees acknowledged budget constraints during discussion elsewhere in the meeting, noting projected revenue changes for fiscal year 2027 and a limited pool of bond and operating funds. Board members asked administration to provide budget analyses as they consider broader compensation changes.
The public comments and the approved bus-driver schedule reflect ongoing board-level discussions about how to balance fiscal constraints with staff retention and equity concerns.
